Unlike (sub)orbital flights, a nearpsace flight would be in the range of the average person. Granted, it lacks the 'I've been to space' and zero gravity appeal of a suborbital spaceflight, but it can run longer and gives just as good views. As JP said, through Aubrey in Floating to Space, "This is what people want from space tourism. Not the high g-loads and vomiting. They want to stand on the veranda with a drink in their hand, watching the great blue ball of the Earth roll silently beneath them." Given that it's cheaper, it is a lot less likely to be seen as exclusive, as a lot more people will be able to go.

well the thing is if you would make it a hotel-cruise kind of thing it would have to be real big, the thing i mean with the amusement park ride is small say 6 person rides to near space and back again.

But if you could make it like a hotel/cruise it would be cool as well. The view would we spectacular to say the least

_________________Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.

I like the cruise idea. Back in the 1930's airships were used for intercontinental transport, along with ocean liners. Then the Hindenburg burned and airplanes were developed, and today no one does intercontinental travel by airship anymore, and the only ships that carry passengers commercially are ferries. And cruise ships.

So, if airships were just as good as (or better than) ships for carrying people from continent to continent, why wouldn't a high-altitude airship work just as well as a seagoing vessel for cruises?

The main problem seems to be infrastructure. Cruise ships visit interesting places for their passengers to visit. A stratospheric airship that can carry a significant amount of passengers is going to be too large and too slow for an airport. Perhaps it could really be a flying ship, land on water, deflate its balloon, and use existing port facilities?

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus

I like the cruise idea. Back in the 1930's airships were used for intercontinental transport, along with ocean liners. Then the Hindenburg burned and airplanes were developed, and today no one does intercontinental travel by airship anymore, and the only ships that carry passengers commercially are ferries. And cruise ships.

So, if airships were just as good as (or better than) ships for carrying people from continent to continent, why wouldn't a high-altitude airship work just as well as a seagoing vessel for cruises?

The main problem seems to be infrastructure. Cruise ships visit interesting places for their passengers to visit. A stratospheric airship that can carry a significant amount of passengers is going to be too large and too slow for an airport. Perhaps it could really be a flying ship, land on water, deflate its balloon, and use existing port facilities?

It doesn't have to land. The passengers could embark and disembark from the airship unto a ferry.

_________________“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” -Anonymous

Interesting idea. But the ferry itself would probably have to be an airship too. How do you dock two airships, given their shape? Keep in mind that many of the passengers will be elderly, so you can't have any acrobatics getting on board...

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus

As far as I know, there's nothing wrong with having a docking platform, with a shaft down to the cabins on the underside, on the top of the "ferry ship" if this is going to be an air ship as well. That way you could use an elevator to lower the passengers from the upper to the lower ship.

They may be able to get low enough to let helicopters reach them, but helicopters are noisy, shaky, and expensive to operate. Not what you would want to put several busloads of grandmothers through. A smaller airship would be much nicer. I hadn't thought to put an elevator all the way through the craft, but it solves the problem and seems like it would work. A cruise ship is essentially a floating hotel, and this would be one floating at the edge of space.

Right, so now that we've decided that Ascender and Deep Sky Station are really good ideas, all we have to do is wait for JP to build them, and book our tickets .

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus